Recipe Sweet cornbread

[Wandering Bob]

Melt then cool 60g of butter (leave on one side for 25 mins or so)

Put in a mixing bowl and mix together:

125g of plain flour
125g of instant polenta (the 5 mins cooking variety)
30g of sugar
1 11g sachet of baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt

In another bowl, beat together:

2 large eggs with 260ml of full-fat milk and the melted butter. Add ¼ teaspoon of vanilla essence and mix well.

Pre-heat the oven to 200C

Grease with margarine a 25cm across square deep metal oven tray

Add the egg mixture into the contents of the mixing bowl and stir the batter until it's evenly moistened. Pour it into the greased tray and spread level.

Put the tray into the oven and bake until the cornbread is browned. It should spring back when lightly pressed in the centre, and has begun to pull away from the pan sides – from 20 to 25 minutes.

 

[Wandering Bob]

Next of the sweet cornbread 'tests' out of the oven this evening.

This is raisin & orange cornbread. Same as the above recipe but I added 70g of plump raisins and 1 teaspoon arome fleur d'orange for the vanilla.

 

[buckytom]

That looks fantastic. I don't think that I've ever seen raisins in cornbread, but why not. I love all other kinds of raisin bread.

Have you tried it hot with butter and honey yet, oh Robert d' Meanderer?

 

[Wandering Bob]

That looks fantastic. I don't think that I've ever seen raisins in cornbread, but why not

Thanks - why not indeed. I quite liked it this morning for breakfast - the orange flavouring gives it a new dimension, but I'm not quite sure about the raisins. I'm waiting for feedback from 'my testing team' before deciding whether this was a good line to pursue to not. It turned out a bit more 'cakey' than I'd expected too - if I ever get 30 seconds of quiet, I'll try and analyse why.

For the next sweet cornbread trial, I'm minded to follow up @morning glory 's suggestion of cranberry/orange. Struggling a bit to source the cranberries locally, but once I have, I'll get going. I also think I'll trying adding some orange zest to the mix - a compare & contrast with the arome fleur d'orange (which I still don't have a decent translation for).

Have you tried it hot with butter and honey yet,

It depends on when I bake - the latest one was an evening production so - no, I didn't. But when I make one at mid-day, I'll definitely follow up on your suggestion.

 

[rascal]

I'll have to try this, a friend from Texas sent me aunt Martha's packs. I love it.

Russ

 

[Wandering Bob]

I'll have to try this, a friend from Texas sent me aunt Martha's packs. I love it.

Go for it @rascal - it's a simple and cheap dish to make. Apart from melting the butter, there's hardly any cooking involved. You can organise the dry ingredients while something else is in the oven - then whip this in for 20 mins or so. I'm making one almost every time the oven's on.

You've got a sweet tooth? This thread refers to sweet cornbread - so far I've made two variations and, assuming I don't die from lack of sleep, there should be a couple more variations posted up here next week.

If you're looking for the basic cornbread then check this thread out instead:

https://www.cookingbites.com/threads/simple-cornbread.13130/

I shall start making a range of savoury cornbread soon. This involves subtle changes to the list of ingredients and relative quantities. Once under way, I'll be posting the results under a different thread.

 

[Wandering Bob]

Note to anyone following this thread:

The 'raisin' idea is a dead-end. Having tested it, I wasn't wild about it - and the feedback I've received suggests it's not worth further pursuit.

On the other hand, the arome fleur d'oranges in the cornbread is a great success. Ideas as to how to progress this theme are coming thick and fast.

One more to come today (will be posted later) and two more ideas are in the pipeline for next week (assuming that I can source the ingredients).

 

[Morning Glory]

I shall start making a range of savoury cornbread soon. This involves subtle changes to the list of ingredients and relative quantities. Once under way, I'll be posting the results under a different thread.

The idea of chilli cornbread interests me...

 

[Wandering Bob]

Cornbread au chocolat orange

Another iconoclastic production from the Subversive Baking team (our mission: wilful cultural appropriation or, if you prefer, blatant theft of culinary ideas).

Following on from the part-failure of the raisin/orange cornbread, this incorporates my concept of immediate & delayed chocolate (described in detail in the QQ Canelle Choc thread). Unlike that recipe, this uses orange as the background flavouring rather than cinnamon.

Thought this would make an interesting breakfast item – a twist on pain au chocolat. Also hoping it’ll make an interesting (and filling) dessert: cut horizontally and spread with crème fraiche, it might just tick the box (particularly for hungry cyclists).

Recipe: as for the raisin/orange cornbread, but the raisins are replaced with 1 dessertspoonful each of chocolate chips and chocolate chunks.

 

[Morning Glory]

I made an almond vegan version subbing almond milk for cow's milk and using golden syrup instead of egg. I could do better - it needed more sweetness. I quite liked the effect of the jam and flaked almond layer in the middle.

 

[Wandering Bob]

@morning glory - Deviant Baking at its finest. A true work of art

 

[Wandering Bob]

Notes on 'Cornbread au chocolat orange' - post #9 refers

The texture is perfect, the quantity of chocolate (and the balance between the two chocolates) is spot on - but it's not orange-y enough. Next time around I will increase the amount of arome fleurs d'oranger to 1.5 teaspoonfuls and I will add the zest of half an orange

Local comment : 'trop bon', literally 'too good' - I hadn't been looking for encouragement or a compliment, but I got both in those two simple words

A resounding 'No way!' from Atlanta, GA.....which confirms several things:

@buckytom is right when he says sweet cornbread is a northern pleasure

culinary conservatism is alive and well in the US

to get two such disparate comments (praising and condemning) means that it must be right to continue to provoke

 

[Wandering Bob]

@morning glory … I thought you might like to know there have been positive comments to your vegan almond cornbread from places as far apart as the north of Scotland to Brittany, and from a couple of places in between too. More comments from outside the forum than from within (so far, anyway).

Local interest is high so I'm going to have a go at it today. I'll reverse engineer your recipe to make a 250g cornbread in a loaf tin, and with two eggs. It seems straightforward enough - if I succeed, and can get a 'compare + contrast' photo later, I'll post it here

I'll use either cherry or strawberry jam as a filler. I'm still taken by the idea of blending almond and orange, but will save that one for later

 

[Morning Glory]

@morning glory … I thought you might like to know there have been positive comments to your vegan almond cornbread from places as far apart as the north of Scotland to Brittany, and from a couple of places in between too. More comments from outside the forum than from within (so far, anyway).

Local interest is high so I'm going to have a go at it today. I'll reverse engineer your recipe to make a 250g cornbread in a loaf tin, and with two eggs. It seems straightforward enough - if I succeed, and can get a 'compare + contrast' photo later, I'll post it here

I'll use either cherry or strawberry jam as a filler. I'm still taken by the idea of blending almond and orange, but will save that one for later

Well that is lovely - the comments, I mean. I'll be interested to see how your version turns out. I was going to attempt it again too, with polenta. I think I can improve on it.

 

[Wandering Bob]

First attempt at a non-vegan almond cornbread (250g mix)

Used 25g of almond flakes. 30 mins at 200 - slightly undercooked - probably needed another 5 mins